WIRe Activities - CDT WIRe

Our students get up to a wide range of activities throughout their PhD with CDT WIRe, from public engagement experience at science festivals to scenario-based workshops. See some examples of these activities below. We are actively updating our website and hope to have more recent content here soon. Our students often present their research at international conferences - see their impact here.

Public Engagement Activities

CDT WIRe PhD students inspire young scientists

CDT WIRe students delivered a session on water treatment and water quality to enthusiastic students at Westborough High School, Dewsbury, in April 2026.

We demonstrated drinking water treatment processes, including coagulation and filtration, and discussed how clear water is not always 'clean' using conductivity meters.

The school students were very engaged, asking lots of great questions. Afterwards, the teacher commented 'the students have not stopped talking about the activity and some of the other younger students were asking if they can take part next time'.

CDT WIRe attends New Scientist Live 2024

CDT WIRe hosted a stand at New Scientist Live in 2024, having fun with all things water filtration!

The event saw thousands of members of the public visit the Excel Centre in London over the weekend of the 12-13 October, with a day dedicated to schools' visits on Monday 14 October. It was a great opportunity for our PhD students to communicate the brilliant work they are doing to a diverse audience, and highlight the importance of water research to the public.

Activities included a water filtration demonstration, showing how some steps of the wastewater treatment process work.

Thank you to our PhD students for getting involved: Sreelakshmi Babu, Anna Christy, Raman Suri, Siqi Xu, Isabel Carneiro Cardoso da Silva, Mark Powders, Matthew Pitt, Harry Nicklin, and Rachael Giles. A big thank you also CDT WIRe staff members Jackie Whelan, Luca Alibardi, and Peter Jarvis for coordinating and attending the event. We will be back at New Scientist Live in 2026!

Siqi Xu (Cohort III) participated in the Soapbox Science event held in June 2022 at the Milton Keynes shopping mall. At the event, she spoke to the public about her research on sewage sludge.

Holding a poop emoji in her hand she talked about pyrolysis, and why it is a beneficial treatment method for sewage sludge.

Harry Nicklin (Cohort II) participated in the FameLAB Science Communication competition, where researchers give a 3 minute talk on their research. Harry successfully made it to the Cambridge Regional final of the 2021 competition.